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Welcome to Reach (Novel)
{|style="width:100%; color:#FFF;" |valign="top" style="padding:5px;"| Prologue July 16th, 2552, near High Charity An Elite walked up to the bridge of the a Covenant CSO-class Supercarrier, the Epitome of Honor, his steps echoing loudly in the large, nearly silent room. His name was Vanaka ‘Warikee, and he was an honored Field Marshal in the Covenant military. As he reached the top of the ramp to the bridge, he could see the Prophet of Charisma, hunched over in his gravity chair. Vanaka hated those chairs, and resented that the prophets believed that they were superior to the Elites. Charisma looked at Vanaka, and started to speak. “Vanaka, would it not be an honor to uncover a Forerunner artifact?”. The Elite looked at the prophet, unsure of whether or not this was some sort of trick. The Prophets were always trying to trick him. They thought he was stupid. “Of course, but why do you ask?”, he questioned the Prophet. It would seem obvious that the Prophet had indeed found such an artifact, but Vanaka could never be too sure with Charisma, so he asked anyway. The Prophet gave a small smirk, and opened his mouth. “We have found one such artifact. There is only one problem....”, Charisma’s voice trailed off as his smirk grew larger. “The planet housing the artifact is infested with the vermin. Humans, as they call themselves. You are quite familiar with them, no?” Charisma let his smirk fade for a few moments, just long enough for a look of genuine disgust to cross his face as he said the word ‘Human”. That last bit about Vanaka being familiar with Humans had obviously been meant as some sort of joke. Vanaka did not laugh. “Prophet”, Vanaka began. “It would be an honor to cleanse the planet of the parasites.” Charisma just looked at him, and managed to stretch his smirk even longer. “I know.” July 24th, 2552, UNSC camp, Reach The telltale vroom of the Warthogs engine was heard as it pulled to a clean stop in the middle of a make-shift UNSC outpost, consisting mostly of tents. Spartan-B312, also known as Noble Six, took a step out of the Warthog, looking around while walking towards one of the tents. He spotted a fellow spartan sitting casually in the gunner seat of a Falcon, quietly putting magazines into a large Sniper Rifle, and heard a voice coming out of the tent he was walking towards. "Contact with Visegrad Relay was lost last night. All signals flatlined at twenty-six hundred hours." The voice was instantly recognizable as Colonel Urban Holland, and it sounded as if it was coming from some sort of COM."I responded with trooper fire teams, which have since been declared MIA., Holland continued. Noble Six could see into the tent, and saw a Spartan facing a monitor, with an image of Holland displayed on the screen. This was evidently the COM. The Spartan's helmet was resting besides him on a table, and he was hunched over the table, his hands resting on it while he looked at the screen. The Spartan's armor was dark blue. Holland was old, with graying hair and a clean shaven face. He was the commanding officer of Special Warfare Group Three and had operational control of Noble Team, the team that Six had come here to meet and join. The Spartan facing the screen replied to Holland, "And now you're sending us." Although the display only showed a picture of Holland’s face, not a video, it would have been a good bet to say that Holland had given a black-humoured sort of grin as he said, "The Office of Naval Intelligence believes deployment of a Spartan team is a gross mis-allocation of valuable resources. I disagree." As Six stepped into the tent, he saw one spartan sharpening a large knife on his shoulder pad. This knife had presumably been the cause of the large skull etched into his helmet. Another spartan put her arm up to block him, preventing further entrance into the tent. Six immediately noticed that the arm was robotic. This Spartan had obviously lost the original arm in combat. The robotic-armed Spartan turned to the Spartan facing the computer monitor. “Commander”. A huge Spartan in the corner of the room with orange armor and a mini gun turned to face Six, as well as the Spartan facing the screen. The one facing the screen, evidently the commander, spoke up. "So that's our new number six.’’ The Spartan with the knife turned to the Spartan with the robotic arm. "Kat, you read his file?" The Spartan with the robotic arm, Kat, replied, "Only the parts that weren't covered in black ink." The Commander turned back to the screen, resuming his conversation with Colonel Holland. "Anyone claim responsibility, sir?", the Commander asked. "ONI thinks it might be the local inssurection. Five months ago, they pulled a similar job on Harmony. Hit a relay to take out our eyes and ears, then stole two freighters from dry-dock. That cannot happen here. Reach is too damn important. I want that relay back online, Noble One." The commander nodded, saying, "Sir. Consider it done." Holland replied, ‘’Then I'll see you on the other side. Holland out." The Spartans all stood up to leave, and the Commander turned back around to face Six. ‘’Lieutenant’’, the Commander said to Six. ‘’Commander. Sir’’. Six said back. "I'm Carter, Noble Team's leader. That's Kat, Noble Two’’, he pointed to the Spartan with the robotic arm. Then he pointed to the Spartan with the knife, and then the large Spartan with the mini gun. ‘’Emile and Jorge, Four and Five. You're riding with me, Noble Six." The spartans started to walk towards a Falcon, a helicopter type aircraft. Kat, the one with the robotic arm, Emile, the one with the knife, and Jorge, the one with the mini gun, took their seats in the Falcon closest to the tent, while Six, Carter, and the Spartan with the sniper rifle walked towards the other one. As Six and Carter took their seats in the Falcon, Carter yelled over the roar of the falcon's twin rotors, "I'm not gonna lie to you, Lieutenant. You're stepping into some shoes the rest of the squad would rather leave unfilled." Carter was referring to the previous Noble Six, who had died. Carter added, "Me, I'm just happy to have Noble back up to full strength. Just one thing - I've seen your file. Even the parts the ONI censors didn't want me to. I'm glad to have your skill set, but we're a team. That lone-wolf stuff stays behind. Clear?" Noble Six nodded, saying, ‘’Got it, sir’’. Carter signaled to the other Falcon with the rest of Noble team in it to begin taking off. The Spartan that Six had seen with the sniper rifle earlier, Jun, was riding with Carter and Six. Jun looked at Six and said, ‘’Welcome to Reach.’’ Chapter 1 '''Winter Contigency'